Tag Archives: Everett

Giants Head South to Face Silvertips

by Richard Davalos (Hit him up on the mighty Twitter: @QuakesFan84)

Tonight sees the fifth matchup betweens the Giants and Silvertips this season. Everett has won three of the four games so far by a combined score of 14-4. To be fair, the aggregate scoreline is a little misleading as the Giants have picked up 3 of a possible 8 points in the games played — in a late December back-to-back, they took the home game 2-1, and battled to a 1-0 OT loss on the road. The first and most recent matchups, though? Complete domination by the U.S. Division leading Tips. You should have taken the over in those games, as Everett scored at will: 5-1 and 7-1 finals did not flatter the Giants, who were frankly outclassed on both sides of the puck.

Matt Pufahl isn't with the Silvertips anymore, but frankly this is one of my favourite shots from last season. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Matt Pufahl isn’t with the Silvertips anymore, but frankly this is one of my favourite shots from last season. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

Lately the Giants and Silvertips have been pretty even against the field, with Vancouver going 4-5-0-1 and Everett 5-4-0-1 in their last ten.

Besides that Last Ten Games column in the stats sheet, there’s not much in common between Vancouver and Everett this year. The Silvertips and Giants are in different stages of rebuilding: Everett is near completion, while the Giants have a solid foundation of young players but have seen uneven play from their veterans.. Quite literally the only thing they share in common this season is a bottom-half penalty kill, with both teams nullifying only 76.2% of power plays faced, tied for 17th in the 22-team Western Hockey League.

Despite the dismal penalty kill, coach Kevin Constantine has made the Silvertips have been a tough nut to crack — not only are they the second best defensive team in the WHL, with just 149 goals allowed (only Kelowna has allowed fewer at 138), but they have also taken the second fewest penalties in the league, and that isn’t even close. Everett have taken only 544 minutes in penalties (Kootenay has 539 PIM), the third-most disciplined teams are Brandon and Moose Jaw, tied at 665 minutes.  If the Giants want to avoid another blowout, or gasp! to win, they will have to stay out of the box themselves and try to goad Everett into taking a few penalties at home.  They cannot repeat what happened in the last game, when they took 41 minutes in penalties to Everett’s 19 on the way to a six-goal defeat.

The Giants visit Braden Low and the Everett Silvertips in Friday night WHL action. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The Giants visit Braden Low and the Everett Silvertips in Friday night WHL action. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

Quick Hits

Vancouver have been good at home, but are losers in 10 of their last 11 games played away from Pacific Coliseum. Everett, on the other hand, have been dynamite at Xfinity Arena: they’ve won eight of their last ten at home, with that lonely loss just a few days ago versus Tri-City. If the Giants are going to make that post-season, they really ought to figure things out on the road. Of their 17 games remaining, nine require loading up the bus.

Vancouver is six points behind Tri-City for the number one Wild Card spot, and one point ahead of Kamloops for the last playoff spot, although both teams have a game in hand on the dirty, rotten, stinkin’ Blazers.

The next home game for the Giants is next Wednesday against the Red Deer Rebels — at noon! — in the annual Hooky Day.

Seattle really is a great sports town

We’ve heard a lot about Seattle’s sports culture over the past few years. Sounders supporters have baffled visiting MLS teams with their size and vocal nature, helping the squad make the playoffs in each of their first five seasons. The Seahawks “12th Man” mystique has grown as they’ve put together their best season ever, setting and then resetting the Guinness World Record for loudest public stadium in history.

Seattle goaltender Danny Mumaugh plays with the benefit of 6,000 screaming fans behind him nearly every night. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Seattle goaltender Danny Mumaugh (@dannymumaugh) plays with the benefit of 4,000 screaming fans behind him nearly every night. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

Noise came as little surprise, then, when I hit up ShoWare Center for a Thunderbirds game against their cross-town rivals the Everett Silvertips. More than five thousand fans of both teams came out for the last weekend of 2013 for the second half of a home-and-home series. The building has a capacity of just over six grand, so 5K in the house meant ShoWare was one rockin’ barn for this tilt. It was an absolute treat to be a part of it — fans of the two teams playfully (if not particularly imaginatively) taunted each other all game, and screamed, gasped and bit their nails in all the right places.

Sure, Thunderbirds fans complain about the Everett cowbells, but deep down they love it. I mean, deep, deep down. Keep looking. It’s in there someplace.

Fans of the Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips were loud, passionate, and dare I say it, FUN. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Fans of the Seattle Thunderbirds and Everett Silvertips were loud, passionate, and dare I say it, FUN. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

More after the jump.

Continue reading Seattle really is a great sports town